Affinity is only shown numerically in the player's profile. Elsewhere, they are shown only as progress bars to the next level for that piece of equipment, such as in the Arsenal, during missions, or in the end-mission report.

Upon gaining enough Affinity, equipment will rank up and gain one extra point of Mod capacity (two points when supercharged via an Orokin Catalyst or Orokin Reactor), used for applying mods. Despite players often calling it "experience," Affinity is stored in each specific item, not the player's character/account; if an item is sold or used in crafting, it loses all of its associated Affinity and ranks.

Affinity does not directly affect a player's Mastery Rank, but a player does gain 200 Mastery points per level on a Warframe and 100 Mastery points per level on a weapon.

The amount of Affinity a weapon or frame has earned during a mission can be seen in the post-mission report, just to the left of the reward info box, where it is referred to as XP (experience).

Using the Affinity Booster, purchasable for 40, doubles Affinity gain for 3 days, or 7 days with the 80 booster.

Some Prime Access packages also have special 90-day Affinity boosters.

Acquisition

Warframes and weapons gain Affinity for several types of actions, detailed below. Unless specified otherwise, all Affinity gained uses the same split: 25% of the amount goes to your Warframe and 75% of the amount is divided evenly among all equipped weapons (25% each for three, 37.5% each for two, or the full 75% if only one is equipped).

Kill an enemy. Each enemy grants a specific amount of Affinity. If killed with a Warframe ability, all of the Affinity goes to the Warframe. If killed with a weapon, half goes to the Warframe and half to the killing weapon.

Be near an allied Tenno when they kill an enemy. When within ~50 meters of an ally when they kill an enemy, you gain the same total Affinity, split according to your own weaponry. This doesn't reduce the Affinity gained by the killing player, and doesn't reduce the Affinity gained by other nearby allies. This does not apply to Archwing and the Interception mode; they have much larger ranges for shared affinity.

Use a Warframe ability. Affinity equal to the base energy cost, in most cases.

As Update 15.8, it is still bugged. User sometimes gains no affinity from ability use.

Hack a terminal. 50 Affinity.

Complete an objective.

Complete a Challenge. 1,000 or 5,000 Affinity, depending on the particular challenge.

Scanning enemies. 1/3rd of the Affinity gained upon killing the enemy, rounded down.

Stealth scan. Affinity equal to gain upon killing the enemy.

Companion Affinity

Companions gain their own Affinity, similar to Tenno.

The Companion kills an enemy. Total Affinity upon kills is equal to that gained by Tenno.

Kills with its weapon. 50% Affinity is split between the Companion and its weapon.

Kills with an ability. 100% Affinity to the Companion.

The Companion uses an ability. Amount varies by ability.[investigation needed] 100% goes to the Companion.

A nearby Tenno, but not the Companion's owner, kills an enemy.

50% Affinity is split between the Companion and its weapon.

100% Affinity to the Companion in the absence of a weapon.

Bonus Affinity

If a player makes it to extraction, they gain bonus Affinity based on the amount of affinity gained during the mission, often. It is only awarded if the player made it to extraction.

Bonus affinity shown as yellow in the end of mission report is the bonuses from completing objectives and challenges using the respective weapon or frame. It is often worth up to 50% of the base affinity earned during the game.[investigation needed]

Level Requirements

To reach a given level from unranked, a Warframe or Sentinel needs 1000 * level2 affinity in total. A weapon needs half that amount.

To reach the same level from the previous level, a Warframe or Sentinel needs 1000 * (2 * level - 1) affinity. Again, a weapon needs half that amount.

Pie chart illustrating the proportion of each level of the total affinity required to rank any item from unranked to 30.

Cumulative Affinity Requirements

Level

Warframe/Sentinel

Weapon

Level

Warframe/Sentinel

Weapon

1

1,000

500

16

256,000

128,000

2

4,000

2,000

17

289,000

144,500

3

9,000

4,500

18

324,000

162,000

4

16,000

8,000

19

361,000

180,500

5

25,000

12,500

20

400,000

200,000

6

36,000

18,000

21

441,000

220,500

7

49,000

24,500

22

484,000

242,000

8

64,000

32,000

23

529,000

264,500

9

81,000

40,500

24

576,000

288,000

10

100,000

50,000

25

625,000

312,500

11

121,000

60,500

26

676,000

338,000

12

144,000

72,000

27

729,000

364,500

13

169,000

84,500

28

784,000

392,000

14

196,000

98,000

29

841,000

420,500

15

225,000

112,500

30

900,000

450,000

Enemy Affinity Scaling

When you kill an enemy, the Affinity gained is shown on screen underlined in blue. It is calculated as:

Affinity = Enemy Base Affinity × (1 + 0.1425 × Enemy Level0.5)

Because the square root is taken of the enemy's level, the actual benefit of facing high-level enemies is minimal. For example, killing a level 100 Napalm would give 1213 Affinity, less than twice the Affinity you would get from a level 3 Napalm (623). Therefore, "farming" Affinity is easier when killing many low level enemies instead of withstanding very powerful ones.

For further reading on this subject, consider the Affinity and Affinity Density chapters of the Enemy Level Scaling article.

Notes

Fully ranked equipment still accumulates Affinity even though the mission end screen does not display it. The total Affinity can be seen from a player's profile page.